Wednesday, August 2, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to announce a proposed law to reduce legal immigration with two Republican senators Wednesday at the White House.

Earlier this year, Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue introduced legislation that would cut legal immigration from 1 million to 500,000 people each year.

The bill, which has not moved through the Senate, also calls for limiting admission of migrants’ family members, ending the diversity visa lottery program, and making the process of obtaining “green card” work permits more difficult.

Trump has met twice with the senators to discuss the legislation, which is aimed at fulfilling one of his main policy goals in reforming America’s legal immigration system.

During a rally last week in the midwestern state of Ohio, Trump spoke of the legislation’s effects on low-skilled immigration and referred to it as a “merit-based” system.

“Instead of today’s low-skill system – just a terrible system where anybody comes in, people that have never worked, people that are criminals, anybody comes in – we want a merit-based system, one that protects workers, our workers, our taxpayers, and one that protects our economy,” Trump said.